Re: xwindows
raymond ferrari wrote:
>
> Kent West wrote:
>
> > raymond ferrari wrote:
> > >
> > > I was in xwindows today reading the information under Debian online help
> > > and specifically the ethernet Howto, clicked on 3com to read
> > > documentation and that's when nothing happened. Everything froze, except
> > > my hard drive. The light kept going, blinking but I couldn't exit,
> > > shutdown, cntrl/alt/backspace, q, cntrl/alt/del, mouse wouldn't work,
> > > keyboard froze, nothing. I had to shut down the power after three hours
> > > of nothing happening. I was in root, and I don't know what I may have
> > > done to files etc. Can someone please tell me what to do next. I haven't
> > > gone back into Debian yet, however I was able to start win95 without a
> > > problem and I have cleaned the hard drive and I am going to completely
> > > scandisk the hard drive and fix auto. I'll come back to this list in a
> > > little while.TIA.Ray Ferrari
> > >
> > This sounds more like a hardware problem than software (of
> > course, that's just a "gut feeling" based on fairly limited
> > experience). My first suspicion would be an overheated CPU, with
> > my second suspicion being a bad RAM module. Of course, this isn't
> > to say that it's not a software problem, but the only time I've
> > seen X lock up that badly was related to Netscape and/or running
> > a Windows app via WINE. And even then I could telnet into the box
> > from a remote computer (of course you have to be on a
> > network/online in order to do that).
> >
> > Nonetheless, it happened. Unless you're running an UMSDOS system
> > (Linux on a DOS partition - not likely) or accessing files on the
> > Win95 partition while in Linux, Win95 should not have been
> > affected, and running Scandisk won't fix any problems on the
> > Linux partition.
> >
> > When you go back into Linux, it'll automatically see that it
> > wasn't shut down properly and will run it's version of Scandisk
> > (fsck - File System ChecK maybe?). Chances are real good that no
> > real damage was done.
> >
> > If it happens again, you might want to compile a kernel (you'll
> > want to eventually anyway); I understand this is a good way to
> > stress-test the RAM in your box, and might give you a clue as to
> > whether you have a RAM problem. There are also software utilities
> > that will check your hardware over, but I've never used one that
> > I felt gave 100% reliable results (more like 70-80% has been my
> > experience). Your local hardware shop might have a RAM tester;
> > that's a little bit better of a test, but of course it only tests
> > the RAM, not the CPU, motherboard, etc.
> >
> > On the other hand, you'd expect to see problems in Windows if it
> > was a hardware problem, unless you don't load down the system
> > fairly heavily.
>
> Kent: It is rather odd because I ended up running Scandisk and also
> defragmented my hard drive(c: was 3% fragmented which has happened since my
> install of Debian. Anyway, after I did this I went back into Linux and it
> showed not clean unmount and went ahead and cleaned things up. I let my
> machine run all night with Linux loaded and xwindows. I booted into win95 and
> then shut down my machine to look at my ethernet card. Windows closes down
> properly, and also re-boots properly. Prior to the loading of Linux, my system
> would never shutdown or re-boot properly. I would have to run scandisk every
> time I shut down because it wouldn't shut down properly. Another thing, I have
> run scandisk a few times where the scanning doesn't stop. It has actually run
> all night a couple of times. I don't think this is working as it should. Is
> this a software or hardware problem, if you know. As far as the RAM and CPU
> etc., Micron has just replaced the motherboard, CPU, and cd-rom because they
> went bad. This computer is three years old, Pentium II, 200MHZ. I don't know
> if I have something else going wrong???I will have to see with time.
>
> My ethernet card is a 3com905-TX with a 3comParellel Tasking chip using
> Lucent's 40-0336-004 chipset. I connect to my isp through a cable modem. It is
> a COM21. If you know what I need to do to connect up to the internet with
> Linux, I would appreciate the help. Thank you. Ray Ferrari
I'm CC'ing this to the list, because I really don't have any
answers for what you're seeing, and maybe someone on the list
does.
I've seen situations when Windows doesn't shut down properly. As
a general rule, this has been caused by PowerManagement (slow
down CPU after X minutes of inactivity, etc) issues, or by
Windows trying to do some behind-the-scenes stuff it can't do,
like closing network connections when the network has died, etc.
Since you've had problems in Windows prior to your Linux install,
and now you're seeing freeze-ups in Linux (which is a rather rare
thing to have happen), I'm leaning even more heavily toward the
idea that you have some sort of hardware problem. Since you have
a new motherboard and CPU, I'd suspect either RAM or AC power
fluctuations. Do your lights dim when the refridgerator
compressor kicks in? If so, you might want to invest in the
services of an electrician, or at minimum, a UPS. Brown-outs can
wreak havoc on electronic devices, especially digital devices
such as a computer.
If you think your AC is good, and if you have two or more RAM
modules installed, you might want to switch the location of the
two RAM modules and see if you start seeing different symptoms.
If so, that points pretty strongly to a bad RAM module. And
again, a kernel recompile is a fairly good stress-test for RAM.
I've also seen some weird stuff with flakey IDE controllers, but
if your motherboard is fairly new, they're probably integrated
into the mb, and its replacement should have removed this as a
consideration.
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